November 15, 2018

When The Elephants Scuffle...

Facebook seems to materialize in this column an awful lot. But when a service has “connected” more than 2.2 billion people, I suppose that makes sense. The New York Times published a deep dive into the company, based on interviews with “more than 50 people,” many of whom are anonymous. We learn, for example, that the company hired a Republican opposition-research group to discredit protesters by linking them to George Soros, and that it lobbied a Jewish civil rights group to label criticism of Facebook as anti-Semitic. Just normal, cool, I-started-a-company-in-my-Harvard-dorm-room stuff.

One of the mice that got trampled as the elephants battled is the Republican oppo-research firm Definers Public Affairs, which lost Facebook as a client amidst the hue and cry. Facebok's position: senior execs knew nothing and anyway, the media knew full well that DPA had Facebook as a client:

Late Wednesday, Facebook decided to terminate its relationship with Definers after the publication of the Times article prompted an outcry, said a person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to speak publicly. Top Facebook executives including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg were not aware of the specific work being done by Definers, the person said.

In a statement, Facebook said it had not hidden its ties to Definers and disputed that it had asked the firm to spread false information.

“It is wrong to suggest that we have ever asked Definers to pay for or write articles on Facebook’s behalf, or communicate anything untrue,” a Facebook spokeswoman said in the statement.

“The relationship with Facebook was well known by the media — not least because they have on several occasions sent out invitations to hundreds of journalists about important press calls on our behalf,” the spokeswoman added.

Well. We wouldn't expect Facebook to stand up to a left-wing mob. With a different alignment of politics and players the Times follow-up headline would be "Republicans Kvetch About Business As Usual".

Just for example, the Times also included this detail in their original expose (with a picture of the offending poster):

By then, some of the harshest criticism of Facebook was coming from the political left, where activists and policy experts had begun calling for the company to be broken up.

In July, organizers with a coalition called Freedom from Facebook crashed a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, where a company executive was testifying about its policies. As the executive spoke, the organizers held aloft signs depicting Ms. Sandberg and Mr. Zuckerberg, who are both Jewish, as two heads of an octopus stretching around the globe.

Eddie Vale, a Democratic public relations strategist who led the protest, later said the image was meant to evoke old cartoons of Standard Oil, the Gilded Age monopoly. But a Facebook official quickly called the Anti-Defamation League, a leading Jewish civil rights organization, to flag the sign. Facebook and other tech companies had partnered with the civil rights group since late 2017 on an initiative to combat anti-Semitism and hate speech online.

“Depicting Jews as an octopus encircling the globe is a classic anti-Semitic trope,” the organization wrote. “Protest Facebook — or anyone — all you want, but pick a different image.” The criticism was soon echoed in conservative outlets including The Washington Free Beacon, which has sought to tie Freedom from Facebook to what the publication calls “extreme anti-Israel groups.”

Hey, maybe the posters were meant to be anti-Semitic. Or maybe not! But it was lefties, so no biggie.

Unless I'm not understanding something, if the judge agrees with the White House's side of the argument vs Acosta, then they're also agreeing with the House lawyers that no newsmen need ever be allowed on WH property. Which, of course, is entirely correct, and something I'd expect Trump to start toying with, i.e. no more pressers, no more briefings, maybe just occasional questions answered while on the way to the helicopter. Very few in the press corps actually ask questions anyway and, if Trump changes the whole dynamic of getting info to the press, I'll bet it stays changed forever. Again, the press shoots itself in the foot, or maybe in the head.

When I saw in the overnights the reference to the EU asking the UK for $39B as a going away present, and knowing what we know about the status of the militaries on the continent, I am reminded of Stalin's question about the Pope: "How many divisions does the Pope have?"

I confess I didn't read it that way at all, henry.
Seemed to me he was saying fiscal austerity is bad; fiscal profligacy is bad; China, the EU, Italy and everyone else is bad and there are no good ways out of what's coming.

That wasn't so terrible. But the registration doesn't seem to require e-mail confirmation, which is a bit worrisome.

No more blue slinky. That's Galileo saying "Eppur si muove."

Speaking of science: On that SMOD discussion, the NPR video at one of jim_nj's links, the narrator said something like, "The meteor could have arrived 12,000 to 20,000 years ago, or maybe as much as a million years ago." Hmm, very sciencey.

Most insightful observations: The nasty reaction we are hearing from the left now reminded him of watching a video of Nicolai Csecsesceau's execution. As they were leading him out to stand against the wall and be shot, he was barking orders to his executioners.

Why? Because it was what he had done for 40 years and he didn't know any other way to react.

Is a pox on all their houses too much to ask? BTW, SalesForce.com mines it's customers' CRM data for ad sales (and lists sales). Nothing benign or civic about that business.

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, is another critic, among the many now sharply criticizing Facebook and its executives.

He was interviewed by Kara Swisher, co-founder of tech news website Recode, for MSNBC’s “Revolution” series. He said that big tech’s leaders need to move from a money-centric worldview to one that focuses on civic improvement. He singled out Facebook as having a negative impact.

1. I got tired of reading inane stuff from classmates in Florida such as "Jerry and I are
going to the seafood buffet in St. Pete today."

2. I couldn't separate politics from other things as far as organization. In other words, if I posted something about Trump on my rime line I was going to get grief from my democrat side of the family.

3. The way it operates became too confusing. Too many pages, links. posters popping up out of nowhere that I didn't know, etc.

4. I don't want my data mined, although they probably already have stuff on me.

It seems to me that they have tinkered with the format and meddled with censorship-type stuff so much, that the site is useless.

“In July, as Facebook’s troubles threatened to cost the company billions of dollars in market value, Mr. Schumer confronted Mr. Warner, by then Facebook’s most insistent inquisitor in Congress,” the Times claimed. “Back off, he told Mr. Warner, according to a Facebook employee briefed on Mr. Schumer’s intervention. Mr. Warner should be looking for ways to work with Facebook, Mr. Schumer advised, not harm it. Facebook lobbyists were kept abreast of Mr. Schumer’s efforts to protect the company, according to the employee.”

“A Senate aide briefed on the exchange said that Mr. Schumer had not wanted Mr. Warner to lose sight of the need for Facebook to tackle problems with right-wing disinformation and election interference, as well as consumer privacy and other issues,” the Times continued.

Schumer’s daughter, Alison, works for Facebook as a product marketing manager, and according to Open Secrets, Schumer received $38,900 from the company in 2016 — making him the second largest recipient of donations from Facebook, surpassed only to failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

WSJ: Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office is exploring whether longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone tried to intimidate and discredit a witness who is contradicting Mr. Stone's version of events about his contacts with WikiLeaks, according to people who have spoken to Mr. Mueller's investigators.

... Stone now claims to have texts that prove his story, casting the blame on Randy Credico's friend, who is a lawyer working for WikiLeaks

rse, great article. Gawande nails the issue with the mandated EMR and its hijacking of health care. It came via my Twitter feed two days ago and I shared it with all my partners. They agree.

Mistitled though--I don't hate my computer. I hate lying politicians, which is how we came to have EMRs. That encompasses all Dems and plenty of Rs.

Burnout from EMR use has hit 57% of the people with MD after their names who now do the data entry job ward clerks and billing specialists used to do, while trying to make eye contact once or twice with a patient during the encounter.

I know the people at Channing Daughters. Allison Dubin is the GM. The have some inexpensive gift baskets. Great variety of wines and liquors. Boutique gin, vodka, and whisky seem to be the rage out here nowadays.

Oh well, thanks for your great Blog, TM, no matter what we have to do to get on it.

I notice Miss M posted this 2 threads back:

We did not get the snow St. Louis got, Instead, we have ICE. There are power outages all over the city and surrounding counties. Fortunately, we have power. Schools are closed or on 2-hour delays, depending on where they are located.

I looked outside and my car is encased in ice, probably about 1/4 inch thick. I am going NOWHERE today!

So I pop open the company website and this is the 1st thing I notice:

An Operational Emergency in accordance with Section 12.A.3 of the contract was declared for Flight Operations in Indianapolis at 0700Z 15NOV18. Winter weather impacting the IND AM outbound operation is causing major delays.

Please take your time and ask questions when something does not seem right....

Yep!

Now if somebody would please post how to put some pic in that icon box I would be grateful.

JUST IN: Federal judge Mark Walker has issued a denial to the request from Sen. Bill Nelson and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to extend the recount deadline. Counties are set to submit results of a machine recount by 3:00 PM today.